Police Chief Buck Pollard ruled Stillwater in east
Texas for 34 years. The small town didn't have a crime rate because he
never arrested anyone - he didn't have to. He had something on everyone in the
county and he kept them under his control. Related to half the
county, Pollard had the other half in his pocket. Corrupt, he
ordered his policemen to keep quiet, deny, lay low and turn
a blind eye while pocketing the wads of money Pollard sent their
way. When Jane Maxwell, mayor and bank president, produces
off-shore accounts in his name, Pollard resigns quickly and
quietly.
Enter former FBI agent Jack McBride. His career
is declining, his wife left him, and he wants a new start in a
quiet small town. He needs to spend time with his 13-year-old son Ethan, who is
longing for his mother to return. McBride knows that is never going to happen but
is hesitant to share that information with him. Within hours upon
arriving, McBride follows the flashing lights to a single-wide
trailer. Inside he finds the nude bodies of Gilberto and
Rosa Ramos, dead from gun shots. The gun is still in Rosa's
hand. Although the scene is made to look like a murder/suicide, Jack has doubts
and begins the investigation. Quickly, he is knee-deep in
troubles from all directions.
McBride meets Ellie Martin while closing on the house he bought from her. She is
a bank executive, leaving that day to follow her dream. She is opening a book
store/coffee shop. An instant attraction is sparked.
Walking behind her, his FBI training in profiling kicks in.
Tall, attractive, nice eyes, unable to scope out her figure
because of her outdated uniform. He can tell she has had
significant weight loss recently. He likes the way she
walks and guesses her age to be near his. Nice package and
he plans to get to know her.
Ethan is all set to hate the town. Proud his dad was
formerly FBI, he questions the Police Chief role. Will he
wear an ugly police uniform, a cowboy hat, and arrest dirty
rednecks? His dad is a city boy through and through. No
way would he last in this town. Ethan makes few friends.
He takes photographs all over town to fight boredom.
What else is there to do? Ethan is a "chip off the old
block." He's curious, observing people, sees through lies,
always testing, exactly like his dad. His plans: wait it out
here until his mother comes back. They will be a family
again.
In her debut novel, Melissa Lenhardt spins a complex plot
about murder and mayhem in Stillwater. McBride solves two
murders, a suicide, and the identity of a decades old
skeleton dug up in the woods. Blackmail, illegal
immigrants, drugs, child porn, along with a long list of
colorful characters round out this exciting adventure. I am
sure a sequel will be coming to continue the pursuits of
Jack McBride, Ethan and Ellie, and I will be waiting. Great
read!
Big secrets run deep.
Former FBI agent Jack McBride took the job as Chief of
Police for Stillwater, Texas, to start a new life with his
teenage son, Ethan, away from the suspicions that surrounded
his wife’s disappearance a year earlier.
With a low crime rate and a five-man police force, he
expected it to be a nice, easy gig; hot checks, traffic
violations, some drugs, occasional domestic disturbances,
and petty theft. Instead, within a week he is investigating
a staged murder-suicide, uncovering a decades’ old skeleton
buried in the woods, and managing the first crime wave in
thirty years.
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